Good Attitudes Build Happy Homes – 1-B Bev

HOW TO HAVE A HAPPY HOME
1-B  Good Attitudes Build Happy Homes
By Bev Robinson

Ras and I awakened one morning years ago. I was in the kitchen cooking breakfast. I sat down at the breakfast bar, sighed and said, “I feel like I slept with the devil last night.”  The kids looked at me with raised eyebrows. I had slept with their dad. I was still sleepy and groggy and had not realized how it sounded. They told their dad when he came in for breakfast and then they began to tease us. Regardless of the pun that was not intended, think about it. Sometimes sourness and bad attitudes come from not getting enough rest or from events of the previous day. When you get up, there is that bad attitude staring everyone in the face with seemingly not much reason.

Another reason that explains our wrong attitudes is programing by family happenings when we were children. I remember an incident that happened after Ras and I had been married about 10 years. It was so “eye-opening” to me that I remember exactly where I was standing in our den. Ras would soon be home from work and I was considering ways to start an argument. After I had rolled over several things in my mind, it occurred to me what I was doing.  Why was I trying to pick a fight? Things were going so well. It felt like our relationship was going almost too well. I asked the Lord why I was thinking about sabotaging our relationship. Why was I thinking about starting an argument? God showed me a pattern in my childhood home life. Things would seem to be going well and all of a sudden, for no apparent reason, relationships would be strained between my parents. Separation or divorce would soon follow. (There were seven divorces between my mother and father.) As a child, I would be playing without a care and suddenly attitudes would turn sour and divisions followed. It was an established pattern I had grown up with. Family roots of such happenings can produce bad attitudes. The reason I was about to pick a fight with my husband was because of the pattern I had experienced in my childhood.

We may not know exactly why bad attitudes come, but if you don’t stop them they can hinder the blessings God has for you and your family. How we handle challenges can directly affect our lives and bring good attitudes or bad attitudes. So what does it take to maintain a good attitude? Let’s look at three Scriptures:

1. Romans 8:28-29. (NASB)And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.  For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;
2. Proverbs 14:6. (AMP) A scoffer seeks Wisdom in vain [for his very attitude blinds and deafens him to it], but knowledge is easy to him who [being teachable] understands.
3. Philippians  2:5.  (AMP)“Let this same attitude and purpose and [humble] mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus: [Let Him be your example in humility:]

1. Romans 2:28-29. This verse of Scripture was written by the Apostle Paul. Early in his life he was a part of imprisoning and murdering Christians. After he was converted and began to share the Gospel, he was beaten several times, thrown out of cities and imprisoned. God caused good to come from all he had been through. In Paul’s time, the known world had the Gospel preached to them mostly because of him. Our son-in-law, the pastor of our church, places emphasis on the words God causes. Whatever has come your way, good or bad, God will cause it to work for your good. At the same time He is causing good to come, He is also conforming us to the image of Christ. Both Jesus and Paul went through many things and so will we. So if we can keep in our thoughts and words on the fact that God will cause all things to work together for our good, it can help us maintain good attitudes.

2. Proverbs 14:6 reminds us the futility of scoffing. Scoffing means being cynical with whatever is happening. Having a cynical attitude blocks wisdom from a situation, but having a teachable spirit brings understanding. Scoffing will result in a bad attitude. Maybe children in the household have little idea of what is going on between parents, as was the case for me as a child, but it can open them to cultivating bad attitudes. A scoffer is bound by his attitude. The remedy is to walk in humility and have a teachable spirit.

3. Philippians 2:5 tells us to have the attitude of Jesus and walk in humility as He did. Jesus gave up the privileges and blessings of heaven to come to earth. The rest of the passage through verse 13 says He emptied himself and was obedient even to the point of death.

When we work at having good attitudes, knowing God will work out all things for our good, when we don’t allow ourselves to become cynical, and when we walk in humility, we will be well on our way to having peaceful, up building and positive homes. We can only do this through the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit. Through allowing Jesus to live through us, we can maintain the attitudes for a joyful life and experience happy home life.